AKHALTZYK (meaning, in the Georgian language, "New Castle"):

A fortified town of Transcaucasia, in the government of Tiflis, on an affluent of the Kur, 110 miles west of Tiflis. Of the 26,000 inhabitants about 3,000 are Jews; some of thembeing very old settlers, while others emigrated from Abas-Tuman in the middle of the nineteenth century, owing to persecution by the Mohammedans of that region. They have a synagogue and schools, and are mainly cotton-weavers and small traders.